Description

Pitch 1: get up to the Grand Traverse Ledge (we took 1st pitch of Chim Chimney)

Pitch 2: Move right along GTL from the top of Chim Chimney to the base of a big left-facing dihedral. Climb short face to a hand to fist crack in the corner up to a cactus filled alcove.

Pitch 3: Crux moves off the belay lead to easy ground up the corner to an imposing roof. Pass the roof on the right via fun squeeze moves, and continue up crack system to the top. Good pro found in back of roof.

Walk left to swamp slabs descent.

Location

Hassayampa ascends the dihedral below the large triangular roof between Magician and Magnolia Thunderpussy

Protection

Warning to aging geezers like me! I climbed this route three times between 1974-1980 and never had the least problem with the third pitch "squeeze" passing the roof on the right. But when I led the third pitch October 12, 2009, I suffered a mini-epic! Thirty five years later and thirty pounds heavier than before, my chest became horribly stuck as I traversed ever further along the nifty foot traverse ledge which makes moving right around the roof a true piece of cake. Unfortunately, the bottom bay squeeze proved to be precisely as narrow as my chest had become thick! And I do mean chest, not stomach. To make the passage, I had to fight for my life; I wore an abrasion into my back, exactly over the middle thoracic spine area and came away with a bone bruise on my sternum between the nipples. While amidst the thrutch, I entertained gloomy thoughts of dying a slow death from asphyxiation as I become ever more tightly wedged, unable to relieve the constricting pressure as if held by a boa constrictor. At other moments I thought about the news headline of my predicament: "Geriatric climber rescued 300 feet up cliff with chest stuck in rock." I feared becoming a laughing stock and a Darwin award winner. Now I can laugh off the debacle. So I wonder, has anyone else suffered a similar fate on Hassayampa? Surely I am not the first male, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 190 pounds, with a 45 inch chest, to do this climb!

Climbed Hassayampa last weekend. Sent a skinny young buck partner up there on the last pitch as the last time I did it was 30+ years ago and I'm an an old fat trad now. At 6'2" and 200lb, I could stand up at the start of the chimney traverse and get the gear out. Tried to wriggle across and couldn't quite fit through. Put both knees on the footrail ledge and "walked" across, no big deal. Sweet. Sorry about the epic, Terry, but thanks for the heads up!